Pohl was a high-school dropout, but, by the time he was 20 years old, he was editing the science-fiction magazines Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories. In the late 1930s Pohl and others interested in science fiction formed a group known as the Futurians, which dedicated itself to the creation and promotion of constructive and forward-looking (“futurian”) science fiction. Other members included Isaac Asimov and C.M. Kornbluth. During World War II Pohl served in the U.S. Army Air Forces and then worked briefly in an advertising agency before returning to writing and editing.

Though many of his works are known for their humour, Pohl often addressed serious issues. His most famous work, The Space Merchants (1953), was written in collaboration with Kornbluth. It tells the story of Mitchell Courtenay, a “copysmith star class” for a powerful advertising agency who is made head of a project to colonize Venus in order to create consumers in space. This chilling portrait of a world dominated by the economic perspective of advertising executives made Pohl’s reputation. Pohl wrote several other books with Kornbluth; some of their work can be found in Our Best: The Best of Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth (1987).

Pohl’s other novels include The Age of the Pussyfoot (1969); the Nebula Award-winning Man Plus (1976); Gateway (1977), which won both the Hugo and the Nebula Award for best novel; Jem (1980), the first and only novel to capture a National Book Award for science fiction (hardcover), bestowed only in 1980; Chernobyl (1987); and All the Lives He Led (2011). The trilogy composed of The Other End of Time (1996), The Siege of Eternity (1997), and The Far Shore of Time (1999) imagines the future Earth at the centre of a galactic war. Pohl’s numerous short-story collections include The Best of Frederik Pohl (1975), Pohlstars (1984), and The Gateway Trip: Tales and Vignettes of the Heechee (1990). Pohl also won the Hugo Awards for best professional editor (1966–68) for his work at Ifmagazine, for best short story for both “The Meeting” (1973, written with Kornbluth) and “Fermi and Frost” (1986), and for best fan writer for his blogThe Way the Future Blogs (2010).

Pohl’s other works included a memoir, The Way the Future Was (1978), and an environmental handbook with Asimov, Our Angry Earth (1991). He also wrote biography: Tiberius (1960; written as Ernst Mason) and the Encyclopædia Britannica article on the Roman emperor Tiberius. Pohl was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1998.